Well, after 6 months of preparing myself for revision, I finally had a date: December 4, 2014. When I met with my surgeon, the very last step before the operation, he told me that things did not look good on the barium swallow. Now mind you, I had a barium swallow done in December of 2012 where the radiologist thought things looked pretty messed up in there. He said I had a hiatal hernia and my stomach was prolapsed up through my diaphragm and that my esophagus was not functioning normally. I went straight to a band specialist and he told me that the only problem was a slightly dilated pouch. He unfilled me completely (I knew I should have left right then and there) and 4 weeks later added back a small fill and then another a couple of weeks after that, both under fluoro. He told me I was good to go and that I needed to keep my calories at 1200 a day. Uh, If I could do that, why was I in this mess in the first place??? I was starving, even with the fill.

My second barium swallow was in September of this year. The radiologist at that time said everything looked just hunkey dorey but this is the same swallow my surgeon didn't like. ! So out of 2 swallows with 4 people reading them, I got one surgeon and one radiologist disagreeing on each exam. so confused.

Well turns out the very first radiologist and my surgeon were right. I had a 4-hour operation that was strictly to remove the band, which had slipped and repair the huge hiatal hernia. Now I get to wait for about 3 or 4 months to let things settle down before I can go back for bypass. This was 3 days ago and it has been hell since the day of surgery. I was in the hospital overnight but came home to a dying dog. Not even a little bit cool. I had (still have, actually) a ton of excess gas to release from surgery so I have been in pretty extreme pain from that despite walking it off, GasX, etc. I am, however, off narcotic pain meds, which is great. I just hate that crap. Makes me sick.

Anyway, it all just kinda sucks right now. I definitely know that my surgeon is looking out for my best interest and I can tell by my pain that he did a ton of work on me so as soon as I am feeling a little better I will adjust my attitude to one of gratitude and wait out the next few months. I have completely forgotten what it feels like to eat normally, so maybe i will get to experience that before bypass. I did just get that amazing new Vitamix, though. I think it is more likely that I will be addicted to smoothies by the time I am ready for bypass. I can definitely think of worse things to do over the next few months than trying out new smoothie recipes!